Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Oil on canvas, pasted on cardboard. 1930s-40s.
Signature: A Murakin

Born in Mulgimaa, painter Ants Murakin (1892-1975) was influenced as a painter by the artists of the young Estonian generation, especially Konrad Mägi and later by the post-impressionists while residing in Hungary. As a young boy, he went to paint with the students of Kristjan Raud and Vilhelms Purvitis and, despite the outbreak of World War I, improved his skills at every opportunity.

By the 1930s, he had developed a unique decorative style with nuanced textures and colors, with a slightly visionary light effect, which we can also see here. Juicy Nordic fruits were easily available and so we find several still-lifes with apples in his work, three of which are in the Viljandi Museum.

He loved to accompany the red and yellow-green fruits with a blue vase, which we see alone in this painting but with a companion in some others. An exciting accent is added to the work by the charming drapery, between the folds of which the light sometimes disappears and then emerges brightly again, thus bringing out its finely woven pattern.

Text: Mai Levin, Katre Palm